Steady Light
by tivainthesnogbox
Summary: Ziva takes a walk by the ocean. Updated 7/16


A/N: I'm back after about 3 years and with a new name. This idea was floating in my mind for a while for my regular writing but I also felt like it could work for NCIS. I would love any feedback you could give! UPDATE 7/16/12 I took down chapter 2 and placed it at the end of chapter 1.

The breeze rolling in off the ocean caused Ziva to shiver. She wrapped her arms around herself, fighting off a chill that was forming as the night's hour grew later and later. But still she walked, her feet leaving their marks as she walked through the cool sand toward her destination. She was lost in her thoughts as they flew about in her mind.

Four days. For four days, Ziva had been away from D.C. She needed a little time and space to sort out her tumultuous thoughts that had been escalating to a breaking point ever since her release from the hospital after that damned bomb explosion.

So she took a week off work and drove down to the quiet coastline of North Carolina's Outer Banks. No one knew her destination. Ziva had rented a small cottage and, other than buying a few groceries the first night, had not left the cottage except to walk along the shore.

Most of her thoughts revolved around one person. One man to be exact.

She kept walking.

She looked up towards her destination just as the beams flashed over her. She stopped. It hit her, a realization so strong that Ziva David, ninja extraordinaire, was stopped dead in her tracks 50 yards away from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

What she desperately wanted was something permanent. Something permanent just like a lighthouse, for a lighthouse was a permanent and stable object that ships could rely on for safe passage in the night and bad weather.

Hadn't _he _been there when the times got dark or helped her get through some of her own bad weather like the night when he so tenderly caressed her face in the elevator to calm her distress?

They had such a tumultuous relationship, but they had been able to go through things that could turn friendship into loathing and come out on the other side with a deeper friendship once conversations had cleared things up.

Through all the hardships, _he _had been there. _He _was the lighthouse sending out those reassuring light beams.

With this revelation, the walls around her mind fell down and all the spinning thoughts stilled. And Ziva finally let her mind see what her heart had been trying to tell it for years.

With that acknowledgement to herself, Ziva abandoned her plan of walking all the way to the lighthouse. She spun around and quickly headed back to the cottage, determination building the closer she got to the dwelling. First thing the next morning, she was cutting her vacation short and driving home. _To him._ To the real meaning behind her home.

The wind had picked up and was now blowing fiercely into her face. She ducked her head and walked the remaining yards to the cottage, all the while a huge smile spreading across her face.

She reached the steps and stopped short.

"How did you find me?"

"Just couldn't wait another moment to tell you, I guess."

"Tony, I have something to tell you, too."

~~TZ~~

The breeze rolling off the ocean caused Ziva to shiver, not unlike a similar breeze 27 years ago. Then, she had wrapped her arms around herself to maintain some warmth, but tonight the warm arm of her beloved husband pulled her in closer. But still they walked, their feet leaving two sets of prints, one large and one small, as they walked through the cool sand toward their destination. Tony and Ziva were both lost in their thoughts, but just as they were intimately entwined in their present physical state with his arm around her shoulder and her arm wrapped around his waist, their thoughts were equally entwined.

27 years. It had been 27 years to the day since that fateful night when Ziva had walked this very coastline trying to settle her scrambled mind. That same night when the subject of her thoughts had put his investigative powers to good use and tracked her down on the Outer Banks island of Cape Hatteras.

Three days ago the couple drove down from their D.C. home to stay at the same cottage Ziva had rented all those years ago and celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

Two close minds reflected on all that had happened since that fateful night.

Ziva had made up her mind to talk to Tony during her walk along the shore only to find that the man of her thoughts was waiting on the steps to her cottage. She had spoken first, asking him how he had found her, but Tony simply said, _"Just couldn't wait another moment to tell you, I guess,"_ with echoes from the rescue of that hellish summer a few years prior. And she had responded, _"Tony, I have something to tell you, too."_

Conversations were had. Understandings reached. One or two hopeful, teary eyes might have been fiercely protested that they were not crying. And kisses, real kisses, not undercover ones, were freely given and received.

The next morning Tony returned his rental car to the company's local branch, and the two of them drove to D.C. with Tony holding Ziva's hand the entire way home.

They both knew where they had to go first before going home. So hand in hand they descended into their surrogate father's basement who took one look at them and said, _"Rule 51,"_ shook Tony's hand, and kissed Ziva on the forehead. The pair had breathed a sigh of relief knowing their biggest obstacle, _that blasted rule, _was no longer an issue.

There were two other important people to tell. Tony asked McGee if he wanted to get a drink after work, and Ziva and Abby had a girl's night out. Tim had slapped Tony on the back with a huge grin on his face, and Abby had jumped up and down hugging Ziva repeatedly. And then another secret was revealed. A wedding ten months down the road. Tony was the best man, and Ziva was the maid of honor.

Tony and Ziva had dated for almost a year before they both took a week off of work. They drove down to the cottage and the shore for some much needed alone time and rest. And on their one-year anniversary, they decided to climb to the top of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It didn't take them long to reach the top, and when they did they were greeted with a spectacular view of the sparkling Atlantic under the early morning sun. A slight breeze tousled Ziva's hair.

_"It's beautiful," _she had whispered only to hear a whispered, _"Yes, beautiful,"_ from Tony as he looked at her.

She had looked over and laughed saying, _"You got that move from one of your movies, Tony."_

_"I think it's one of _your_ movies that you made me watch, love," _he had laughed, _"But that doesn't mean it's not true."_

She had smiled and looked out back at the water while holding onto the railing.

_"Hey, Ziva," _he had said softly. She had looked over and gasped.

There he had been, her something permanent kneeling on the floor of the lookout of the very lighthouse that had revealed this to her, saying, _"Ziva, my beautiful, strong ninja, will you marry me?"_

A year later, they were married on the beach in the shadow of the lighthouse. Their closest friends were there. McGee, by that point Tony's unofficial brother, was the best man, and Abby was the matron of honor. Gibbs gave her away after her biological father had assured her that he understood.

Fourteen months later Tali DiNozzo was born, just five months after Tommy McGee.

Four years after the birth of their angel, Gibbs decided to retire and make his full time job that of grandfather. Tony took over as Team Leader, and McGee became Senior Field Agent. A new, young agent joined the team.

Tony and Ziva still shared smiles and looks across the space between their desks. She tended to stare more often and longer when Tony wore his shoulder holster for his guns. It just got to her every time.

A light beam flashed. They were almost at their destination.

"What are you thinking about?"

Ziva sighed, "It was a beautiful wedding."

"Yes it was," Tony smiled, "She was as beautiful as her mother was when she walked down the aisle."

Two weeks ago was the wedding of Tali DiNozzo and Tommy McGee.

Ziva tightened her hold on her husband.

They reached the base of the lighthouse. Tony turned and gently placed his palm on her cheek, smiled, and bent down to kiss her.

"Happy Anniversary, Ziva," he whispered as he pulled away.

"Happy Anniversary, Tony."

After nearly four decades of knowing each other, the spark that was ignited at _"Having phone sex?" _still fueled the fire that burned for many years. They had finally found their something permanent, present through the joy, the pain, the smiles, the tears, the laughs, and the cries.

A beam of light flashed again as they held tight.

To each other, they were a steady light.


End file.
